Saturn
Saturn (also known as Sol VI) was the sixth planet of the Sol system. It was well known for its rings ( ; ) and was orbited by many moons; three of which were Mimas, Rhea, and Titan. ( ; ; ) It was also orbited by navigational control satellites. ( ) Saturnian rings An image of Saturn's rings, taken by the Voyager 2 probe in 1981, was displayed in astrometrics aboard the in the year 2374. ( , et al.) The rings of Saturn generated magnetic distortions. These distortions could make a starship invisible to another starship if the vessel could jump out of warp behind one of the planet's moons. ( ) Location In 2267, the position and orbital path of Saturn were depicted on "Chart 14A: The Sol System", stored in the library computer. The chart was scanned by the probe Nomad in Auxiliary Control. ( , production art) History Before the invention of the telescope, Humans discovered Saturn in the night sky. ( , okudagram) In the mid-20th century, Saturn was depicted on the mission insignia for Apollo 17. On the insignia the sun god Apollo was looking toward Saturn. ( http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_18-18_Mission_Insignias.htm) On September 1, 1979, the space probe Pioneer 11 became the first Earth spacecraft to visit this planet, having traveled six and a half years and 3.2 billion kilometers. The probe discovered that this planet had a magnetic field and a magnetosphere. ( , okudagram) When she was a child, Rain Robinson was able to see Saturn's rings through her brother's telescope. She used to think that they looked like jewels from a pirate's treasure. All she ever wanted since then was to reach up and touch them. This was when she realized that she wanted to become an astronomer. ( ) In 1996, the Griffith Observatory featured an exhibit about Saturn. A picture of the planet also decorated Rain Robinson's offices. ( ) The Cassini mission by NASA brought more images of Saturn, its rings, and its moons. ( ) During the early 21st century, the first manned Earth-Saturn probe was launched under the command of NASA's Colonel Shaun Geoffrey Christopher. ( ) Accompanying Christopher were astronauts Fontana and . ( ) An image of Saturn was contained in the library computer aboard the . This data was flashed on a viewscreen when the Talosians scanned the Enterprise computer in 2254. ( ) Saturn was featured in a nonsense two-line poem that Charlie Evans forced Spock to recite in 2266: "Saturn rings around my head, down a road that's Martian red." ( ) According to Arex, the cosmic cloud encountered by the in 2269 had a diameter twice that of Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune combined. ( ) By the early 24th century a shuttle route had been established "from Jupiter to Saturn and back, once a day, every day," know as "the Jovian Run." Both Edward Jellico and Geordi La Forge used to pilot shuttles on this route early in their Starfleet careers. ( ) In early 2367, the invading Borg cube passed Saturn on its way towards Earth. ( ) In 2368, the Nova Squadron was set to perform a demonstration near Saturn that was be transmitted to that year's Starfleet Academy graduation ceremonies. ( ) Teero Anaydis kept a photograph of Saturn in his home in 2377. ( ) File:Painting, Saturn from Rhea.jpg|Saturn as seen from Rhea File:Saturn moon orbits.jpg|The orbits of Saturn's satellites Appendices Background information According to the , Saturn has a "mass 95 times greater than that of Earth" and "a diameter of some 120,800 kilometers, and orbits its sun at a mean distance of 1.4 billion kilometers". Additionally, the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 2, p. 149), Star Trek: Star Charts (p. 39, "United Federation of Planets I"), and classified Saturn as a class J planet. This planet was a charter member of the United Federation of Planets in 2161. Saturn was named after the titan (son of Uranus) from Roman mythology. It was unclear if Saturn itself was inhabited or not, though a reference made to Saturnius harem girls in might suggest that it somehow was. The necessity of a daily shuttle run would also seem to support this possibility. The Janus loop training program may be named after or related to , another moon of Saturn. A graphic of Saturn and the orbits of four of its moons was seen in (depicted to the right above). The outermost and largest moon was identified as Titan. The remaining three inner moons weren't named but it was very likely that they were , , and , as they are the largest moons with smaller orbits than Titan (for instance, was larger than both Tethys and Dione but its orbit was further away from Saturn than Titan's) and were all discovered in the 17th century and are well established. According to Spaceflight Chronology, the Earth-Saturn probe mission was conducted on the UNSS Lewis and Clark. Signs of past mining activity was discovered from the second and fourth moons of Saturn, first proof of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life. This last detail and would put the mission after 2032. A painting seen in , according to Rick Sternbach, was meant to show Saturn as seen from its moon . Saturn was one of the planets seen in both versions of the opening sequence of beside the Earth, Luna, Sol, and Jupiter, shortly before the Enterprise-D started its exploration of the unknown space. According to the of , the Enterprise passed through the Saturnian system on its course to intercept V'ger. This was changed to the Jovian system for the film. External links * * de:Saturn es:Saturno fr:Saturne it:Saturno ja:土星 nl:Saturnus Category:Planets Category:Sol system Category:Deleted and unused material in background